1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bleaching composition containing an activating agent. More particularly, the invention relates to an activating agent that can improve the bleaching power of an inorganic peroxide bleaching agent at low temperatures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Inorganic bleaching agents such as sodium perborate generally exhibit a very high bleaching effect when used at high temperatures above 80.degree.C. However, their bleaching effect at low temperatures, particularly below 40.degree.C, is very poor. Therefore, various research works have heretofore been made to develop activating agents capable of improving the bleaching activity of inorganic peroxides at low temperatures. Known effective activating agents are roughly divided into esters and N-acyl compounds. For example, glucose penta-acetate is known as the former type activating agent and N,N,N',N'-tetra-acetylethylene diamine is known as the latter type activating agent.
Most of these known activating agents are low-molecular-weight substances. We have made research works with a view to developing high-molecular-weight activating agents having a high dirt-dispersing property and exhibiting a high activation efficiency per molecule.